Familiar Strangers
by moonswirl
Summary: Gleekathon, days 883b-889b: It's been five years since Finn has graduated from McKinley, now a blast from the past befuddles him.
1. Guess Who

_Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 42nd cycle. Now cycle 43!_

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><p><em><strong>INTRODUCING "CHEAT SHEET" - <strong>If you want to know ahead of time when a certain series will be updated next, just reassemble the link below and check out the list, save it, print it, bookmark it, whatever you need!  
>Go to: <span>gleekathon [dot] tumblr [dot] com [slash] cheatsheet<span>_

_** UPDATED WITH CYCLE 43 CHEAT SHEET ** Check it out to find out about **shift days**!_

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><p><em><strong>This is a shift day [see above].<strong> There was another upload this morning: The Customer You Are Trying to Reach..., chapter 1._

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><p><strong>"Familiar Strangers"<br>(Future) Finn & Elsie (OC)  
>Series installment #1<strong>

**A/N: This story is dedicated to the most BAMFtastic Anne on her upcoming birthday this Sunday!  
><strong>**A/N2: The female protagonist in this new series was named in memory of a young cousin. **

**1. Guess Who**

In the back of his mind, maybe he'd always known this was how it would end up. Rachel had belonged in New York, and he just didn't. The breakup had been fairly amicable, really. And in the five years since then, they had kept in touch on and off. But he had moved on, and he had no regrets. For so long he'd thought he needed to leave Lima to be happy, to feel like he was making something of himself. But now he had come to see that his life wasn't a bad one to have. He had his work, and his band, and one day he could see himself with a house, a wife, kids… But that would be some day, not today.

He would stop in at the diner almost if not every day that he worked. He wasn't the lunch packing kind of guy, and except for the vending machine which was half empty all the time, food was not going to be found at work. So he made the three minute walk and got his lunch at Dee's Diner. When he walked through that door, everything would be just as he'd expect it to be, some people he knew and who knew him, good food, and…

There was someone new that day, or at least… their being there was new to him. From the moment he saw the waitress though, it felt as though he should have known who she was. He couldn't explain it, there was just the feeling… She was new to the diner, as far as he could tell, and it so happened that when he sat at the counter it was her who approached to take his order.

"Welcome to Dee's Diner, what can I get you?" she asked, pulling a pad from her apron before ever looking up to him.

"I, uh…" he hesitated, still thrown by the sight of her, and the nagging feeling that he should know who she was. That drew her attention and she now looked to him. As soon as she saw him, she had that same look of recognition, only in her case there was something more. Whereas he had seen her and couldn't figure out where he knew her from, she looked to him and had the very clear look of someone who knew exactly who he was from the moment she'd laid eyes on him. And if he hadn't figured it out from her look alone…

"Oh, hey," she smiled. "Been a while," she nodded.

"Yeah, definitely, a while," he nodded back, nothing better to do, only she was right on to him for that. She knew he couldn't place her and, rather than helping him along…

"So what can I get you?" she asked again, nudging the menu toward him.

"I've never seen you here before," was all he could come up with.

"You probably haven't," she agreed. "I used to work the night shift, but I switched with Karen." It finally occurred to him to look at her name tag, knowing if she didn't help him then at least that would do it…

"Elsie," he read off the tag. She looked down, laughing.

"Did that do it?" she asked, and he looked back to her.

"No, not really," he frowned. She just kept on smiling.

"Well you should probably order something or I'll have to move on to another customer," she pointed out, and he sat up.

"Right," he looked to the menu. He tapped fingers on the pages, trying to focus for a moment… it wasn't working so well…

"How about we start with something simple," she suggested with a smirk. "Thirsty?"

"Just… water," he nodded.

"I think I can manage that," she nodded, reaching for a glass and a pitcher, filling the glass and putting it in front of him. "I'll let you look at the menu, no pressure," she told him, getting flagged down by another customer.

He watched her go, frowning at his inability to figure out who she was. Elsie… He would have remembered that, wouldn't he? But no matter how many times he turned it over in his mind, he couldn't connect the face – which was definitely familiar – and the name – which drew absolutely no recollection. She looked to be about his age though, so it would have been at school, wouldn't it?

"So, any progress?" he was startled and looked up to find she was back in front of him, smiling, pad and pen at the ready.

"You're not going to tell me, are you?" She shook her head. "Burger and fries," he told her and she marked it, ripping the ticket from her pad.

"Coming right up!" She was gone again, and at this point he had nothing better to do than to continue his search his mind.

Maybe she just reminded him of someone? She was blonde, though that wouldn't be enough… Either way, he knew he didn't have it wrong, that he did know her from somewhere, he just didn't know where exactly. That she went to McKinley he was about 99% sure of, but then so did hundreds of others, so that wasn't more of a frame of reference than 'blonde' was.

"Burger and fries," she appeared a couple minutes later, placing the plate in front of him. She stayed there, leaning against the counter. She knew it was bugging him, where he knew her from, and it seemed to amuse her to no end to hold that power over him.

"I'll figure it out," he vowed with a half smirk.

"If you say so," she shrugged, matching his expression.

"But you did go to McKinley, right?"

"Maybe I did, maybe I didn't. Come on, Hudson, think hard," she had taken his power away and then brought it back. She knew his name, so that was… Well, he was on the football team, the basketball team, Glee Club, and he was known around the school… Now his power was gone again, apparently.

"So you're working the lunch shift for good now?"

"As far as I can tell," she shrugged. "Don't miss the night shift, too slow for my taste."

"Okay, then if you're not going to tell me then I'll have to get it out of you," he challenged and she squinted, offering her hand.

"Works for me. Eat your food."

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW AFTERNOON)


	2. Nice Try

_A/N: A little earlier, because this afternoon I'm going to be out, to see the Hunger Games! :D I'm hurrying right now to make it in time!_

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><p><em><em><strong>This is a shift day [see above].<strong> There was another upload this morning: Boom Goes the Dynamite.__

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><p><strong>"Familiar Strangers"<strong>

**2. Nice Try**

The previous day's lunch had yielded no results, no solution to the mystery of who was Elsie and how he knew her. And now that she knew that he couldn't remember, she was all too satisfied to hold on to that power to actually tell him the answer. She was amused, and to be honest so was he. It had given him something to think about… someone to think about…

She'd grabbed his attention; that went without saying. After he'd finished his lunch, paid, he'd looked back to her, hoping one more time for her to let him off the hook. She'd just given that smile of hers, the one he barely knew but had already committed to memory, apparently, and that was it. He'd left the diner, fed and dumbfounded.

He'd spent the rest of the day thinking about her, about who she was and why she was familiar to him. He could never be expected to be a detective, lacked the skills of deduction, of seeing all the pieces at play… His instinct kept taking him back to her having gone to McKinley, even if she hadn't confirmed or denied it. Did that mean she had or hadn't gone there? If she was his age, then she would have graduated when he had, but then she could also have been younger… He would have asked, but she could have said no, could have lied, all in the name of not giving in, maintaining her edge.

He'd finished his day at work and then he'd gone home. When he'd gotten there, still turning the mystery around in his head, he'd had his first potentially helpful idea: his yearbook. He had to have it… somewhere, unless he hadn't taken it with him when he'd moved out of home, he couldn't remember. But then finally he had found it.

He'd laid the book down on the kitchen counter, started flipping the pages, looking at all the pictures, to all the blonde girls… What if she'd dyed her hair though? She could have been a brunette, or… He thought about her again, thought about the feeling he'd had of knowing her, to see if that memory had gone so far as to include hair color… She had definitely been blonde back then, too, he'd put his money on it. Even then, all he had to do was to look at the names… there couldn't have been more than one Elsie, right?

There had been none. So now he felt he had that squared away: she had not been in his graduating class at McKinley. Either she was younger, or she hadn't gone to the school… Square one… But maybe… maybe he could trick her? Maybe he could make her believe he knew?

The next day he'd gone to work, looking at the clock like he was back in school, waiting for a period to end. Finally it was lunch time, and he headed out to Dee's Diner. He walked through the door, looked around, and for a beat he thought maybe she wasn't working that day, but then there she was, coming out of the kitchen with a couple of plates. She slid with ease between a couple of customers in the process of taking their jackets on and delivered her plates before turning and seeing him there… she grinned.

"Back for more?" she'd taken a few steps toward him.

"No," he shook his head, with a half grin of his own. "I figured it out," he declared.

"Oh, did you?" she bowed her head. "Well, sit, tell me all about it," she indicated the counter. He sat on the same stool as the day before, while she went around to where she had been standing.

"You were the junior in my algebra class," he pointed, hoping he looked confident… She snorted.

"Don't let my masterful skills of adding up orders here fool you, I suck at math," she shook her head.

"Oh…" he blinked.

"And I wasn't a junior, either," she further crumbled his plan. She smiled, seeing his frown. She put a glass in front of him, pulled out a can of Coke and put it there as well. He looked at her. "Just a guess," she shrugged, moving on to deal with another customer while he was left back with his menu and his square one which now felt like square… negative three. He looked in the menu, still turning the information in his head.

So she was his age, at least he knew that. But then this also meant she may not have gone to McKinley with him. This had only widened the possibilities, which wasn't necessarily a good thing in his situation. But then he supposed the longer it took for him to figure it out, the more he had reason to come back… and he kind of liked the idea. Somewhere in his musings as to who she was, he hadn't gone without noticing that Elsie was beautiful, and seemed kind enough, lively… He liked being around her, so he couldn't complain much. Still he was dying to know who she was.

"Still mulling it over?" she startled him and he looked up.

"I… burger and fries," he said the first thing that came to mind.

"Consistent, I like that," she smiled and marked it in her pad. "Coming right up!"

He spent the time waiting for his food just watching her, watched her interact with the other customers. He'd been made to smile when he watched her slip crayons to a small boy sitting at the other end of the counter with his grandmother and then taking one of those crayons to draw something on the blank place mat in front of him, which made the boy laugh. She had an ease with all her customers, he found, at least where they were respectful. One man who had been loud with impatience had succeeded not in speeding his service but in bringing out the steel in Elsie. She wasn't going to let herself get bossed around by the likes of this guy, and when he'd found himself unable to 'break' her, he'd deflated and stayed quietly grumbling, waiting for his order.

"Okay, that was kind of amazing," he admitted to her when she arrived with his plate.

"Oh, that," she shrugged with a sly smile on her face. "I get a handful like him every day, have to learn to deal with them or I'd never make it."

"Yeah, I know what you mean," he nodded.

"So," she leaned to the counter. "Have you got any more guesses?" she tempted.

"Not really, no… I kind of made up the other one," he admitted.

"Oh, I know," she laughed. "Don't worry, I'll be here tomorrow, too, if you need more time."

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)


	3. No Tricks

__A/N: Sorry for the delay, crazy day!__

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><p><em><em><strong>This is a shift day [see above].<strong> There was another upload this morning: The Hearts of Friends.__

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><p><strong>"Familiar Strangers"<strong>

**3. No Tricks**

The second day had been a bust. He was nowhere nearer to figuring out where he knew Elsie from… he might actually have been further off than ever before. To some degree it was fine; the chase was interesting. But each day that passed only made him want to know who she was all over again. Lying hadn't worked, but today he had a whole other tactic.

It was something his mother would do with him when he was a kid. She'd get him talking about some thing or another, lulling him into a false sense of security, and then when he'd least expect it, she'd slip in to the question she was really after, and he wouldn't realize, so he'd slip and tell her. He could do that. He could talk to Elsie, never touching on to their whole 'who are you?' situation, and then he'd get her to give herself away. No chance to fail there.

At lunch time he left work and went on his way to Dee's Diner. He walked through the door to find something odd. In his place, which was to say at the spot he'd been occupying for the last two days, there was a hand-made sign declaring this space was 'reserved.' He frowned, approaching, and then he looked up when a hand came to remove the sign. Elsie smirked, indicating for him to sit.

"See what I did there," she told him, with pride for her 'prediction.'

"Hey, I was just figuring you'd wonder what happened if I didn't show," he played it off.

"Yeah, uh-huh," she nodded. "Burger and fries and a coke?" she guessed as he took his seat. "Although if you are going to make this a daily thing, we have some really good salads," she nodded.

"Fine, that works," he shrugged. At this point he'd probably eat anything she put before him. The lunch was quickly becoming an excuse to come and see her. She brought him iced tea, insisting it would go better with the salad. Again, he gave no complaint. He had a plan to carry out.

On his lunch the day before he'd figured out she usually got her break around the time he had to go. So the solution was simple. If he arrived later, he could catch her on her break, and they could talk… and he could play his bating game. He was about halfway through his salad when he watched her come around the counter and sit at his side. He turned to be able and face her. "Hey," he spoke casually.

"Hey," she laughed. "You don't mind, do you?"

"No, it's fine," he promised. "I mean, more than fine. Fine sounds kind of like it doesn't…" he stopped himself. "The salad's good," he complimented.

"I'll let Dee know," she bowed her head with a smirk.

"Oh, so there's actually a Dee?" he asked, surprised, then paused to ponder. She saw his question on his face before he even needed to ask.

"She's been running this place since she opened it, like twenty-five years ago," Elsie explained, sure to press on the pronouns to confirm for him whether Dee was a man or a woman.

"Yeah, I've been coming here for years," he nodded. "I had no idea," he admitted.

"Don't worry about it, she never really comes out here, just works away in that kitchen the way she always has. If you get to know her though she's pretty great," Elsie smiled.

"Sounds like it," he agreed, then thought. "Aren't you hungry by now?" he looked to the clock, and by the time he turned back she'd swiped a cherry tomato off his plate. She froze, caught.

"What, you weren't going to eat it!" she defended herself, pointing back to his plate with her other hand.

"How'd you know?" he was more amused than annoyed.

"You never do," she shrugged. "I pick up on these things, it's part of my job."

"Oh yeah? What else?" She nodded with a grin as though to say 'alright, challenge accepted.'

"You will leave some of your burger behind if it will help you finish your fries when you're not hungry enough for both." He blinked. It was true, now that he thought about it, although he hadn't been conscious of it before.

"Okay…"

"And you eat the long fries first," she added.

"I do," he was aware of this one.

"You want more?" she teased, and he was sure he looked like a deer in headlights… Either way, it got her laughing. "To answer your question, I had my lunch before you got here, so, no, I'm good," she smiled.

"But you will eat my tomatoes?" She perked up.

"Yes, please," she held out her hands. He gladly transferred the tomatoes to her, and she leaned on one elbow as she ate them and he continued with his salad.

"It's not like I don't like tomatoes, I do," he explained.

"Hey, it's cool, I'm not judging here," she promised. "But you don't know what you're missing…" she gave a singsong kind of reply and when he looked back to her, she pulled her hands closer to herself, like he would try to steal her tomatoes away.

"So how long have you been working here?" he asked after a minute or so.

"Uh…" she thought, "Almost three years."

"The night shift this whole time?"

"Oh, yes," she nodded. "I had the whole upside down internal clock thing going. Switching was not easy," she declared. "But then the offer came, and I kind of missed the daytime crowd… and the daytime, period," she went on. "Plus I was this close to developing an infomercial addiction," she cringed, and he laughed. "All better now."

"I'm glad you switched shifts then," he nodded.

"Yeah," she smiled.

Twenty minutes went by before he'd finished his lunch, paid his bill, and said goodbye to Elsie for the third day in a row. It was only as he was walking down the street on his way back to work that he realized he'd forgotten something. In all his intentions to bait her into revealing herself, he'd ended up baiting himself. They'd been talking, and he was interested in hearing what she had to say, and in all this he'd gone and forgotten the actual bait. He'd left without getting to ask her who she was, and now if he went back he was pretty sure he wouldn't get any closer.

It wasn't like the day had been a complete loss. He'd actually gotten to speak to her more now than he had on both previous days combined. He'd gotten to have a sustained conversation with her. Even if he hadn't found out the thing he'd been wanting to know, what he did find out instead had already been more than he could hope for. So with a smile he told himself that tomorrow was another day, another chance.

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)


	4. Direct Approach

_A/N: So late, so very late, but on time too, so... here we are ;)_

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><p><em><em><strong>This is a shift day [see above].<strong> There was another upload this morning: Put On a Happy Face.__

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><p><strong>"Familiar Strangers"<strong>

**4. Direct Approach**

Before he'd left after his third day, she'd told him she didn't work on the weekend, in case he had any ideas of showing up when he wasn't working either. So they had said farewell until Monday. He hadn't thought much of it at the time, not until the next day where he had something like an urge to go out to the diner. Three short days, and not even that… three short hours, all the time he'd spent with her since he'd walked into the diner and found her there… and now the idea that he wouldn't see her that day was just…

Maybe it was the idea of their little game still being unsolved that bugged him. Like any good mystery, you wanted to see the end, pull back the curtain, reveal the ruse, bring it to light, all those things. Except this wasn't a book, or a movie, where he could cheat and peek at the end, it was a girl with a secret. It wasn't even so much a secret as it was her withholding something she knew, something he didn't remember…

But was that all it was anymore? Had it ever been that? The reason any mystery pulled you in was inevitably tied to some desire to find out. The more ardent the search, the more pronounced the desire, the investment. So what did it mean if the mystery was a person, a girl… a girl with those eyes, and that smile, everything…

The weekend had gone by like some challenge to find anything that would keep him busy, to help pass the time until he could head down there again. He wanted to see her again, and the only way that would happen would be if he went to the diner and she was there, and that wasn't going to be until Monday. She'd gone and gotten in his head now, couldn't be chased, not that he wanted her to. Monday… He could get there, it was just a weekend.

Monday morning, he was so minded on his work, he'd never been this productive. If this had been a cartoon, the moment his lunch break started, there would have been a cloud shaped like him where he had been standing, with his hat left spinning in mid-air: he had to get to that diner.

When he got there, he took his usual seat, looked around… No sign of her yet, so she was probably in the back, and as he waited he decided maybe what he needed to do was something he hadn't yet done: he would ask her. Just flat out, he would sit there and look at her, and ask to know how he knew her. Maybe that was all she wanted, for him to just ask.

"Hi there." He was startled. He hadn't seen her come out of the kitchen, and now she stood just over his shoulder, smirking. "Burger and fries?"

"Actually, I'll have the salad again," he sat up. She gave an 'impressed' nod. "Tomatoes on the side," he added with a nod, and she snorted.

"I, okay, coming," she could hardly keep a straight face, and he couldn't explain it but something in her face told him that this past weekend she'd missed him, too. So when she placed his plate in front of him – and the tomatoes in a separate dish which she kept for herself – he took up his courage, and he looked up to her.

"Can you tell me, please?" She blinked, almost squinted.

"Tell you what?" she tempted.

"You know me," he stated, and she nodded. "And I know you," he went on, and she nodded again. "Except… I don't remember how, and you know that."

"And I don't hold it against you," she shook her head.

"Okay, well then just tell me," he bowed his head. She stared at him, pondering, then took one of the tomatoes and ate it, shaking her head again. "Please? Elsie…" he tried to tempt her with an innocent smile.

"Oh, look at you," she gave a slow nod, just as amused as the first day. "Don't you like what we've got going on right now?" she matched his innocence. "You've got a full service here, lunch and a show."

"I know," he agreed. "But…"

"Okay, okay," she stood up straight. "I'll give you this," she held a finger up. "You think you don't know, but you do. You're just kind of… thinking too hard," she explained.

"I don't… know what that means," he frowned.

"You will," she nodded. "At some point… I hope… Come on, don't you want to find out on your own?"

"Well, yeah…" he couldn't deny that.

"I like that you come in every day like this, it's fun for me, too," she told him, and he looked more hopeful now.

"Yeah?" he asked, and she smiled. "I will figure it out, you know."

"I don't doubt it," she shook her head. They were quiet, looking to one another with this decision made, taken with a smile and an appointment for more lunches, more conversations.

"So how was your weekend?" he asked, and she leaned against the counter once more.

"Uneventful," she admitted, dragging the tomatoes to herself with a finger and eating one. "Reading, cleaning, TV, hang with the dogs."

"You've got dogs?" he asked.

"Mimi and Leo," she nodded with a grin. "They're pretty mellow during the week, but the weekend it's like they know I'll be there so they go nuts," she explained and he laughed.

When he finished his lunch, he was about to hand her his money and say he'd see her the next day when one of the other waitresses called up that someone was asking for her on the phone, so he'd been left to settle his bill with someone else and awkwardly wave at her from across the way.

So things hadn't ended up quite the way he'd anticipated, but then he was starting to take that as part of the deal with her. She was right, he did like this, too, even though he kept on wishing he knew who she was. She said he already knew what he needed to know. He still didn't know what that meant, but she'd extended the challenge to him, and he was up for it.

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)


	5. Not Today

__**This is a shift day [see above].** There was another upload this morning: Who Do You Think You Are.__

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><p><strong>"Familiar Strangers"<strong>

**5. Not Today**

There was something different in the air when he walked into Dee's Diner the next day. There was always a flow of activity in the place, everyone working at a steady rhythm. On that day though, it was like they'd gone and gotten a flat tire, not running smoothly in the least. The moment he saw her, he knew he was right.

Elsie's head wasn't in it that day. He'd never seen her like this, since he'd started coming every day. She was always so sunny, even when she dealt with clients who got on her nerves. Now she was almost clumsy in her distraction.

"Hey," he took his seat, getting her attention. When she turned and saw him, she almost looked surprised, and then her mind caught up with her.

"Finn… Look, about today, I…"

"Is everything alright?" he asked, concerned. She took a breath, considering things, then she signalled for one of the other waitresses to know she'd be stepping aside for a moment. When she got a nod back, she motioned for Finn to follow her outside. She sat up against the window ledge, looking back to him.

"Got a call from my aunt yesterday, right around the time you left?" she nodded, and he nodded back. "My grandmother's been sick for a while, but… yesterday she got worse. They don't think she'll last much longer," her brow seemed heavy with grief.

"I'm sorry, Elsie, really," he put a kind hand to her shoulder, and it raised a small smile from her.

"Thank you."

"She means a lot to you," he guessed.

"She practically raised me, for a while. When I was younger, my father had to travel a lot for work, sometimes he'd be away for… weeks, so I'd stay with her. That lasted about eight years, before my father's job changed and he didn't have to travel anymore." She paused. "The only reason I'm here right now is I'd be useless over there, I just… I need to keep busy, you know?"

"Yeah, definitely," he nodded.

"Listen, I'm sorry. I doubt this is what you had in mind when you came in today," she tried a smile.

"Don't worry about it."

"Okay," she breathed after a while, "I should get back in there, and you're probably starved," she laughed awkwardly, standing and checking her face to make sure she wasn't crying. He followed her back inside, and her previous quietness had gone and gained him as well when he went back to his seat. Today wasn't going to be another day of banter and guessing games like before, but he could do this as well, would do this as well, because Elsie was coming to mean… a whole lot to him, and she could use a friend at a time like this. He could be a friend. "What would you like?" she asked, pulling out her pad. He'd sort of forgotten it was lunch time.

"Uh…" he looked down to the menu, unsure. "Burger and fries," he finally said. This wasn't the time for tomato flirtation. She marked it and got the ticket to the kitchen. She got him his drink and then made the rounds with her section of customers.

He watched her go, wishing he could do more. What was the protocol for something like this? Technically he had known her for… he'd have to know who she was to know how long, although he could guess it had been years. Even then, whenever he had known her, there had been a long period of no contact in between or else he would remember her, wouldn't he? He'd already tried to play process of elimination, in case he knew her through someone else. She wasn't dating anyone in his band, she wasn't a customer, no… he could tell it wasn't anything like that.

Either way, the point was that for all intents and purposes, he'd known her about a week. He didn't want to be intruding, as much as he wanted to be there for her. When she came back, carrying his lunch, he looked to her.

"Is there anything I can do?" She looked up, surprised but not surprised, and she gave a small smile.

"You're already doing it," she promised.

Eventually he'd had to leave to get back to work. There was so much inside him that yearned to stay, with her, that he had almost needed to force himself to leave. He left her with well wishes for her grandmother, and then he'd gone.

Walking back to work, he'd been left to do some thinking, about her, and him… and the idea of getting to know her outside of a workplace kind of context. As cute as she looked in her waitress uniform, he kind of wanted to see her as herself. He'd had that same issue, back in the days where he used to date Quinn. He wanted to get to know her, and not just the part about how he'd known her originally, although he still wanted to know that…

It wasn't the girl she used to be who was making an impression on him; if that was the case, then he would have known who she was. No, it wasn't the past that made it so important for him to know, so what mattered was right here, right now… and here and now, she was in his head, burrowing herself a path to his heart.

He couldn't do anything about it now. He did know that there was such a thing as bad timing, and this would have been it. Right now she needed to focus on everything that was happening with her grandmother, so he couldn't distract her. But that was alright. For now, he would be there for her in any way he could, whether that meant dropping in for his regular lunch, or anything else beyond that.

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)


	6. Just This

_**This is a shift day [see above].** There was another upload this morning: Step Fifteen, Take Perspective._

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><p><strong>"Familiar Strangers"<strong>

**6. Just This**

The previous day had been a break from the norm, he knew. Their fun little routine of lunching and guessing had been abandoned with the revelation of Elsie's situation with her grandmother. He'd been debating what he should do, lying in bed that night. Maybe he should back off for a bit. Would he seem like he was there for other reasons than to be supportive if he still went every day? It wasn't even about that right now. He knew it, and he hoped she did, too.

So the next day, after a bit more hesitation, he'd made the walk to Dee's Diner. Maybe she wouldn't even be there. She could have finally decided to stay home, even if she insisted she was better off being at work… But then he'd walked through the door, and there she was, doing her usual sort of plate dance, sidestepping customers to make it back into the kitchen. There was a definite feeling that things were better, but they weren't at a hundred percent either. He took his seat and waited until she came out of the kitchen again. When she did, carrying two loaded plates, she saw him and paused, giving a sign of the head to say she'd be back in a moment. She delivered her plates and then came to stand at her post across from him, breathing out.

"Hey…" she spoke with a breath taken in, and something not unlike a smile – she was happy to see him.

"Hi," he nodded, smiling to her… he was happy, too. "How's your grandmother?" was the first thing he asked, and she bowed her head.

"Actually, she had a pretty good night, I think it did her some good. She looked better this morning, and she was back to asking me her… life questions, so I'd say that's a good sign," she smirked with so much relief, he had to return it.

"That's awesome," he nodded.

"So…" she gave the counter a soft tap. "What can I get you?"

"How about a club sandwich this time?" he decided.

"Branching out, bold," she nodded, marking his order, ripping the ticket. "Coming right up," she moved back, then turned again. "And don't bother taking out that wallet today. Meal's on the house," she spoke with a thankful look. With any luck he would chase away this tremor she caused in his heart just then before she returned. When she did, putting his plate before him, he had to ask.

"What did you mean about 'life questions' from your grandmother?" he asked, going for a long fry.

"I… it's nothing, just the kind of thing family will spring on you, like 'when do you plan on getting married?' or 'is this what you're going to do for a living for the rest of your life?' or my personal favorite, 'when are you going to be having kids?' Slightly disturbing that she's been asking me that one since I was about seventeen…" He blinked, then laughed when she did.

"Well I won't ask about the first or the third questions…" he started.

"Thank you," she cut in.

"What about the second one?" he asked.

"Do I plan on being a waitress my whole life?" she filled in. "No, definitely not. As for what I do want to do, well… I don't think you're ready for that one," she told him.

"Why not?" he asked.

"Just trust me on this one," she nodded.

"Alright, I guess I don't have a choice," he spoke, and she shook her head, confirming. "My mother asks me the same questions… the first and third ones, I mean. Apparently 'I don't know' won't do it."

"Well do what I do, tell her that you've got your eye on someone, but you're taking it slow, because these things can't be rushed," she recited.

"What happens if she asks to meet the guy?"

"Well she can't do that, she'll spook him!" Elsie replied, regaining some more of the spirit that had been snuffed out by her bad news the previous day. He smiled.

"So you've thought of everything."

"Well, you know, things have been pretty slow, so I haven't met anyone that would warrant a shift in my… imaginary situation," she explained, then grew silent as their gazes met, no doubt the same thoughts going through both their minds. "Wow, okay," she breathed as they both blinked away from the moment. "You should…"

"I should eat before it's cold," he provided.

"Exactly, yes, good… Although, it's still okay when it's not hot, you know."

"I do," he informed her.

"Good, alright. Be right back," she told him, moving along.

He was relieved to know she was better… Her grandmother being better was the cause of it, obviously, but all he could think about still was how she'd been so down the day before, and how she'd been able to get back to a good place now and he was relieved. He counted himself as lucky, not to have been put into this kind of situation with a family member like this. There had been Burt's heart problems, years before, but he could hardly compare it to this, not really.

Then he'd start to wonder, about her whole family situation. He wasn't going to ask, but he did think about it, since it was the one thing he really sort of knew about her, outside of the diner. Maybe because of his history with his father, he had gotten to wondering about her mother, noticing her absence in Elsie's story the day before. Thinking about this, he definitely knew he cared to know more about her, and that despite everything, despite still wanting to know where he knew her from, he was starting to think maybe it didn't matter to him anymore, not as much as she did, if that made sense.

Maybe the concern had been that, had he not immediately honed in to the fact that she looked familiar, he could have just had his lunch and walked out of there, never really getting to know her the way he had over this past week. But now he saw it differently, one way or the other.

On the one hand, all this recognition would have done would be to facilitate things, to allow for them to get talking, which in and of itself was a good thing. But then on the other hand, he could choose to believe something else entirely. He could choose to believe that, recognition or no, he would have met her, and he would have been taken by her, would have wanted to know her, and so he would have struck up a conversation, found a way. If that was how it should be, then it would be.

So maybe the next day he'd take the leap. Maybe the next day he'd put it out there for her. After that, then all he could do would be to hope she replied in sort.

TO BE CONCLUDED (TOMORROW)


	7. No Rush

_A/N: Though it says 'the end' at the bottom, fear not, this is only the beginning of the series ;)_

_**This is a shift day [see above].** There was another upload this morning: Right Back Where We Started From._

* * *

><p><strong>"Familiar Strangers"<strong>

**7. No Rush**

She had been single for over a year now, since Alex… She'd had the odd date here and there, but either way she hadn't been looking. If a guy asked her out, half the time she'd say no, and then the other half, if she felt like it, if she liked the guy enough, she'd say yes, but it wasn't ever really as though it was a butterflies-in-the-stomach, change-outfits-five-times kind of feeling. She didn't feel bad about it, really. She was on her own, she was at peace...

It hadn't been immediate, with Finn. He'd walked through the door and it was a blast from the past, pleasant… And then he couldn't remember who she was. At no time had she been hurt by that, quite the opposite she had been amused at seeing him try and figure it out.

She didn't know if there was such a thing as 'a moment,' where the switch was flipped and all of a sudden there were feelings, but somewhere between his arrival and departure that first day, it must have happened. Because when he'd walked through the door that second day, her heart had gone… wacky. It was crazy, she'd known him back then, never felt anything for him, never really considered him, but then she'd been with Alex, and he was all she would have seen at the time. Now she was here and he was here and she couldn't get him out of her mind.

The next couple of days had been so good to them. They were able to talk some more, and if she ever had doubt before that what she felt was real, every day served to erase more of it. Then the weekend, well… She'd found her usual chores of cleaning, laundry, grocery, and so on, to be a much needed distraction, as opposed to sinking in a perpetual cycle of thinking about this guy.

This was new to her, it felt… Alex had been her first and only 'serious' boyfriend and she'd been with him so long, now this thing with Finn was the first time that she, Elsie Cunningham, of adult age, took that leap. And it wasn't even that yet. For now it was her, getting fluttery at the sight of him. She had no idea if he felt the same, although by the way he'd come day after day, she had to hope she was interpreting this correctly and he was feeling something, too. Either way, she didn't want to rush into anything, she had to make sure. She had her reasons, and they counted for something.

But then there'd been her grandmother, and that had derailed her completely. In that moment, the day after, she could only thank her lucky stars for Finn. His presence, regardless of the brief history between them, had come and healed some of the hurt inside her. He didn't have to do anything but he'd done what he could, and for that she recognized him, if anything, as a friend. Now her grandmother had started getting better again and with her restored peace came a new page in her story with Finn Hudson.

The previous day had seen no attempts on his part to uncover 'her secret identity', as he asked after her grandmother's condition and she picked up the check for his lunch in gratitude for the day before that. Now she was curious to see what this day would bring, just as he came through the door.

"I was starting to think you wouldn't show up," she greeted him with a smirk, wiping down the counter in front of his usual spot.

"Sorry, took me a while to get away," he explained, sounding genuinely apologetic. She laughed.

"Relax, I was joking. Just felt like the thing to say," she shrugged. He blinked, confused, and she nudged the menu toward him. "So what can I get you?"

"Salad?" he asked, and she swore his hand made a motion as though to say 'tomatoes on the side.' She sent in his order, motioning to him that she'd make her rounds and get back to him. When she did, carrying the salad in one hand and tomato bowl in the other, it was time for her break so she came around the counter and sat next to him. "How's your grandmother?" was the first thing he asked.

"Better still," she bowed her head, thankful for both the question and its answer. "Leave it to her to bounce back like that," she chuckled. "Elsie the first," she intoned.

"Named after her?" he smiled, and she nodded.

"Thank you, again, for asking about her. Means a lot that you do," she had to say.

"No problem," he told her. For a moment they just ate, him with his salad and her with his tomatoes. Then he spoke again. "You know, I've figured something out."

"Did you?" she sat up, thinking he meant something else.

"Not that," he prefaced. "Still haven't figured you out. But I did figure that… it's okay that I haven't."

"Yeah?" she smiled.

"Sure, at some point it'll be good to know how I knew you then, but… I'm pretty happy just getting to know you now," he told her, and her smile carried into nodding.

"I like the sound of that."

"And I'm not just saying that so you'll cave and tell me the answer," he promised, making her laugh.

"I never thought you were. Between you and me though, I wouldn't have caved."

"You wouldn't?" he matched her smile. She shook her head. "Well, that's okay," he maintained.

"So what happens now? Are you still going to be coming in every day, or…"

"Why, got someone else after my seat?" he asked, and she carried on laughing.

"No, I think it's pretty much yours exclusively now. They're putting in the official plaque next week."

"Then I'll be here tomorrow," he assured her.

"Good," she beamed, eating another tomato.

After he'd left, the rest of the day went by like usual, with its ups and downs. This one had involved a kid's birthday party, which had left her with a very colorful piece of leftover cake to take home with her. After changing out of her uniform, she'd sat on her couch, knees gathered up to hold up the plate of cake as she turned on the television… At this point in her day, getting up was about the last thing on her mind.

But then as it was prone to do these days, her mind had gone back to him… Finn Hudson… Maybe it was his 'leave discovery to chance' declaration, but she'd been trying to figure out where the picture was… To her memory, it was the one physical image that existed with the two of them in it, even if they'd been on opposite ends of it.

Schuester had insisted on it, before the competition, for all of them to pose together. "You may be on opposite teams, but you all represent McKinley," he had told them.

Leaving the cake on the coffee table, she'd gone looking in her closet… She was sure it was in an old tin box, with other keepsakes from those days… but now where was the tin box. After pulling out what felt like a mountain of junk from the bottom of her closet, she'd found one box, and inside it, the tin box, just as she remembered. She smiled, pulling it open and fishing in where she felt the stack of photos. She leafed through them, thinking maybe it wasn't the right box, but then… there it was.

She got up, leaving the whole mess there to be picked up another day, and took the picture with her. The way she saw it, if he hadn't seen her name written, that first day, he could maybe have figured it out before now. He had seen it as Elsie, and yes, that was what it was now, what it said on her birth certificate and everything… But sometime before she'd started at McKinley, in all her teenage wisdom, she had rechristened herself as 'LC,' finding herself very clever for it. She could just imagine Finn, searching for an Elsie when he would have found her with the made-up name she had eventually abandoned.

The picture was just as she had remembered it. On one side, there was Finn, amid the New Directions, and on the other side, there she was, peering over Santana's shoulder, amid the Troubletones. When he finally figured it out, whenever it would be, she could show it to him, the beginning before the beginning…

THE END


End file.
